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It is not out of character. The iPhone was announced months ago. If they had never announced, THEN it would be out of character to see reviews before the release.

Is it living up to the hype? To be honest, I really want one but I'll wait and see how the 2.0 version is.

Let's set aside the desire to write applications for the iPhone. It kinda sounds like it's major failing at this point is that it's not a great cell phone.

Sounds like everything else is pretty cool. I'm sure somebody I know will get one so I'll be able to get a look at it some time in the near future.

***YAWN***


So, people can never have a genuine gripe against Apple, or they are Apple-bashers ?


Stand by while the Apple Fanbois think it is the best thing since sliced bread and how they will queue for 2 weeks at the shops to buy the first one on the shelves.

"All seem to agree that the iPhone is a worthy device with few flaws."

Do you think that's going to stop them?
Stand by while the Apple-bashers get in line to to slag off a device they haven't even used yet :-)

I agree, and I'm not even an Apple fanboy (don't own a Mac, have an iPod but that's it).

Sadly the bashers of Apple are just as stubborn as the defenders, and it's unlikely either will budge any time soon.

Still, I don't think people should be modding you down for what you said, as you didn't insult anyone, and it was not off-topic.

Guys, how about following the rules about mod points, and not just modding people down because you don't agree with them?

Yes, no one at any of those place are capable of writing a non-biased review, they are all apple shills & fanbois!

I'm pleased that most reviews seem to be saying the keyboard is a non-issue. I'm also displeased that Edge sucks as much as I imagined. Overall, i think it sounds like an alright 1.0 product, I'm sure software upgrades will add a couple features and fix a few bugs. I imagine most everything else that needs fixed or features will only be in 2.0.. much like everyone else's speculation.

For me, this is certainly an issue of "want" over "need", I have a craptacular RAZR right now that I've been wanting to ditch since I got it (for free). I can afford it, but I'm also thinking about the future, how will resell with it work? I'd like to get the 4 gig to tide me over till version 2.0 comes out, and unload my 4 gig, who knows how that will work.. I imagine I can wait on this for at least a little while.

Edited for spelling

Edited 2007-06-27 00:12

"they are all apple shills & fanbois! "

LOL... as opposed to you being an MS slug and Co**Sucker? Hummmm?

I love the fact that is new iPod-Mac-OSX cellphone thingie is standing EVERY on there head!

OSNews didn't write the reviews, the New York Times, Wallstreet Journal, MSNBC, and USAToday wrote the reviews. Considering all the anticipation over this device (NYT says 11,000 print articles, and 69 million hits on the site), and the fact that pretty much every reviewer says it sets the bar for next-gen phones, I would say that chances are it will be the next iPod, not the next nGuage. But thats just me...

But you can't play any games on the iPhone, nor remove the battery to put them in :B

"Their stock price is overvalued"

Yea... right bra! its final caught up to apples value! the only people that think is over valued are apple haters!

lets talk in 1 year.... and we will se wether is overvalued or not!

My money (literally) is going LONG on apple!

How can you seriously expect to write applications for it? It's a phone.

what

What are you talking about? People have been writing applications for Windows Mobile based smartphones for a long time. Don't tell me they are not phones.

Edited 2007-06-27 01:34

Maybe I'm missing the sarcasm..but its very conceivable for him to write apps for just about every other phone...and definately "smartphone" on the market...except this one lol. Devkits anyone? Wouldnt do much good though because the bigger issue is really how much ssh work would you want to do with a touch screen keyboard...

HOWEVER..this is Apple, the land of the perpetual device revision..I givem 6months before we see the "iBoard"..YOU Heard it HERE FIRST!! lay the phone on the top of a bluetooth keyboard in landscape mode, bluetooth enabled of course...and it will probably be clear or black with silver trimmings...

"

"

Have you even used a phone in the last decade?

BTW, It's a smartphone (ie contending with XDAs and the lark)
Too many people confuse the iPhone as a mobile-phone competing with the bog standard Nokias, Samsungs etc

If it's just a phone then why would anyone with a brain pay $600 for it.

I find the parallels between this and the PS3 amusing. The PS3 was bashed to death on price (it IS very nice hardware like the iPhone is by the way) with everyone trolling about showing how the (cheaper) Wii is outselling it.

But now when the reverse situation applies, the web 2.0 fart sniffing brigade no doubt won't want to hear that it's even more expensive than the PS3 (no contracts, no $175 termination fee if you don't like it) and it will be massively outsold by cheaper devices.

As the Apple marketing machine has gone to great lengths to tell us, it's not just a phone. So yeah, I expect to write applications for it. The fact that I cannot is a deal breaker.

I will reserve judgment for later when I get to play around with the phone myself.

but.. "All of the flaws sound tolerable?"

That sounds like what somebody would say about his new boyfriend/girlfriend. I wonder though - most people who say something like this end up not being able to tolerate the flaws rather quickly.

3g ain't that great either -- at least on AT&T's network. It's certainly a lot faster then Edge -- when it works that is.

I have a 3G Cingular Sync (Samsung A707) and while it can be fast sometimes, usually browsing is a "connection failed. retry again?" experience.

Their network sucks.

I can't even begin to count the number of times they've dropped my calls -- and that's when talking to people on AT&T's network!

Edited 2007-06-27 00:15 UTC

That's really the problem. Nice phone but crappy network at AT&T and good network(at least in my area) but no great phones at Sprint.

I also have a Cingular Sync (A 707), but I wouldn't bash the network (too much). Why? My wife's RAZR (same network) consistently has a connection when my phone sitting next to it does not. I literally have to keep my Samsung in the window of my house to get any connection at all. Yes, I live in the country, but my old Nokia (also cingular) never had any problems, and my wife's motorola can be used just fine without any ridiculous measures. I'm sorry, but at some point you have to take the phone itself into consideration. Maybe the network sucks, but the A707 makes it suck even more. I should have got the RAZR myself. I actually miss my 4 year old cell phone, regardless of all the features on my new one.

I'm waiting for internet phones, with wi-fi or wimax transport, no more cell phone operators.

You waiting was over long ago, have a look at the Nokia N95 for example

I was living in Chicago for several months with a Blackberry Pearl and Tmobile's EDGE network.

While it wasn't extremely fast, I think it's fast enough for the average user. Youtube H.264 might be a bit too much though. Google maps and AJAX applications should work pretty well. Heck, when I was waiting for Comcast I synced the phone with my roommate's IMac and used it as a modem. No youtube, but email/osn/slashdot worked well enough

Surfing OSNEWS in Opera on the train every morning and afternoon...good times, good times.

Yeah, the new Opera 4 Beta is amazing, even on my SLVR L7.
It will map a web page onto its servers, then only download the sections you want to look at.

Here in the US, AT&T's 3G coverage is rather weak. Right now the only widely availiable 3G seems to be from CDMA carriers, with Sprint leading the way, though Verizon seems to be working to catch up.

Hopefully by the time Apple releases the iPhone in Canada on Rogers network which will most likely be late Q4 it will be a version with HSDPA support and push email capability. Also any bugs found with the AT&T customers should be squashed by the time Canada gets the iPhone.

Except Rogers, like AT&T in the US, has a downright awful network. I'm buying out my contract with Rogers and will never look back, iPhone or no iPhone.

And what are you talking about? Push email was demonstrated on the iPhone during the keynote way back in january.

Where in Canada are you? I've been with Rogers for 4 years now and never had a single problem. I have a Sony Ericsson K790 right now and it works perfectly on their network, and I'm in Halifax - quite smaller province and city. Of course, EDGE is a bit slow for some stuff, and I find North American prices for wireless to be outrageous. I lived in Germany and Ukraine for 14 years in total and you can't even compare North America to those countries.

I live out West, in Calgary Alberta. I've lived here most of my life, and to be honest, have used TELUS outside of AB but never Rogers. Perhaps it's specific to this region, but I'm far from the only person I know who has switched from Rogers to TELUS for that very reason. (And this was long before I started working for TELUS).

Most cell phones it is still 4 steps:

1. Unlock phone /Flip open phone.
2. select recent calls or contacts
3. find contact number.
4. press talk button

The iPhone has
5. Select phone app.

Unlock phone on the iphone is two steps
1. Hit sleep start button
2. slide finger to unlock

Most candy bar phones require you to do a two step process to unlock, click menu + * or some button then *

There is one extra step on the iPhone if you want to dial a number on the keypad as I see it.

Let's not make this such a big deal.

3 steps on a p990i if you look in the address book and 2 if you have them on speed dial. The Iphone still looks cool. I am not sure if I would like a touchscreen all the time to use. I like the tactile feel of buttons and the rate plans is ridiculous. But I do like that visual voicemail feature.

The rate plans really aren't that different for other US carriers with the combination of voice and data - although the CDMA carriers same unlimited data for ~$20 uses EVDO instead of ancient and crappy EDGE. The new rate plans are much better than Cingular/AT&T used to be. $30.00 for 10MB of data in the past - the new rate plans are less for more.

Your have a good point. However if you're going to call something revolutionary, shouldn't you make an effort to actually make it easier to do something?

Saying the iPhone dialing isn't any worse than other phones also says it's not any better.

Your have a good point. However if you're going to call something revolutionary, shouldn't you make an effort to actually make it easier to do something?

If all the iPhone did was make calls I can see your point. The iPhone is a convergence device and offers the best of what other phone manufacturers have failed to do with almost a decade of experience.

Visual voice mail itself is revolutionary for any cell phone on the market. How may steps does it take to parse 10 voice mails on just about any phone?

On the iPhone getting to the most important message is the same number of steps everytime. On traditional phones getting to any message in a sequential fashion is always tedious.

Saying the iPhone dialing isn't any worse than other phones also says it's not any better.

As phones have evolved making a call has always involved more steps.

The first gen land phones were pickup -> dial (rotary or keypad)-> hangup.

Cordless phones now require you to pickup->dial->push talk->push end-> hangup up or putdown.

Cell phones require-> pick up->flip/unlock->dial/ lookup number->press talk/green button->press red button->lock/close flip.

The more phones evolve the more steps is takes to make a call. Phones now are no longer phones but are now internet terminals, music video players, GPS units, etc. etc...

If you really care about how easy it is to dial stick to fixed landline phone with a basic keypad. Wireless is not for you.

Well, not exactly.
Wireless is about convenience, not necessarily about features. I know few people who use it as just a phone. I agree though, that iPhone is not just a phone, but still...

That's only one of the problems. I certainly ain't buying a $500+ phone where I can't replace the battery. It's unacceptable.

"That's only one of the problems. I certainly ain't buying a $500+ phone where I can't replace the battery. It's unacceptable."

i bet you 100 bucks, with in 1 week there is a how too on opening the iPhone and removing the battery! i'll bet you another 100 that with in 1 month... you'll be able to send the iphone to newer or some one similar, and they will replace the bat!

That's the only thing that lets me forgive Apple's lack of IM, the full Safari web browser that will allow a meeboish(though hopefully iPhone tailored) IM client. Actually it may be for the best since an iPhone version of iChat would probably be AIM and Jabber only.

The built in AJAX support means you'll probably see a few iPhone apps tailored just for this purpose...

Plus there's always the chance of the iPhone being hacked, and lots of homebrew apps being available.

Geeks make the world such an interesting and fun place - especially those a lot smarter than me

Ummm, the iPhone doesn't include flash. And considering the iPhone runs on one of the worst networks in the US, web apps are far from ideal.

I think, even if Apple had to forgo things like visual voicemail (so that they didn't need to work directly with a carrier), they should have offered a CDMA version of the iPhone (I've already ruled the iPhone out up here in Canada because I'm in the process of buying out my Rogers contract).

You'd better be prepared to rule out many, many, many more phones once you leave the Rogers-exclusive world of GSM. You're moving to betamax in a VHS world.

Rogers isn't perfect, but when I compare the service to my corporate-issue Bell phone, it's miles ahead. I actually have dead spots in my own condo with Bell, yet Rogers holds a signal in my elevator all the way down to my underground parking. Absolutely no comparison. And for Rogers' flaws, at least they'll let me use whatever the hell phone I want on the network, whenever I want. SIMs are just brilliant.

But then again, while I have no interest in getting one, I still shudder to think of the data plan rates when they release the iPhone. I already feel violated every month on my puny 60MB bbconnect plan.

I guess it depends on where you live. Since you're naming Bell, I'm guessing you live out east. I live in western Canada, so my main options are TELUS and Rogers, and it's the other way around. Rogers is pathetic in comparison. Their internet is much slower, their non-urban coverage is awful, etc etc.

Bell has been available all the way on in BC for going on two or three years. It's even available in the puny town of Kamloops. And there's even Fido out here. It's not just Telus and Rogers.

Rogers has the better network when it comes to cities and phone selection.

Telus has the better network when it comes to rural areas, now that Rogers has killed their TDMA network.

Bell is just crap no matter where you try to use it.

It all comes down to where you live. And how much you rely on customer support, since Rogers' now sucks beyond belief. If you are not a new customer, they don't care about you. They used to have the best CS esperience around.

You're on OSNews....you're far from this phone's primary market.

I personally think it would be great because of the interface, which the vast majority of smart phones do horribly. I have yet to try out Windows Mobile 6, but if it's anything like 5, thanks but no thanks.

I disagree and i wanted one at "first" sounded like a great devide, until I started finding out all the stuff it was missing. AND it's being marketed as a Jesus Phone and the new standard, end all be all solution...therefore NO ONE should actually be out of it's market. But again, thats part of the marketing machine..so i disagree with your first statement...and I think it's safe to say probably alot of others here wanted one until the details started coming out of the passing weeks/months.. Come on look at this updated list of NOT Included features...

• Songs as Ringtones
• Games
• Any flash support
• Instant Messaging
• Picture messages (MMS)
• Video recording
• Voice recognition or voice dialing
• Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Streaming (A2DP)
• One-size-fits-all headset jack (May have to buy an adapter for certain headphones)

Stuff we already knew it didn't have
• 3G (EV-DO/HSDPA)
• GPS
• A real keyboard
• Removable battery
• Expandable Storage
• Direct iTunes Music Store Access (Over Wi-Fi or EDGE)

(ala gizmodo)

a high end media devide with no A2DP?? thats probably the silliest one of all..IM, Flash, Ringtone songs???? this is stuff that the free phone you get for signing up can do lol...

"I disagree and i wanted one at "first" sounded like a great devide, until I started finding out all the stuff it was missing. AND it's being marketed as a Jesus Phone and the new standard, end all be all solution...therefore NO ONE should actually be out of it's market."

From what I can tell, the only "hype" has been coming from the PUBLIC. Apple is successful at marketing, TRUE. I say good for them. You'll find most companies aren't, and it really puts a damper on their business. As far as it being marketed as a "Jesus" phone, get real. As for a new standard, I would have to agree.... I think it WILL be.

By the way, Apple has never stated / implied / or marketed the iPhone as a smartphone. Never. It's not intended to be a Smartphone.

"Come on look at this updated list of NOT Included features..."

Do me a favor, and list ONE phone that has ALL the features the iPhone has and is missing... (buy it... if you can find one). All phones have their pros and cons. Most are tied to certain networks, AT&T, Verizon... some lack features, some features are poor, etc.

If I bought a Pearl I'd be tied to AT&T too (with a two year contract). I'd have a sub-par music / video player... a small screen... a 1.3 mpixel camera and lame web browser. Not to mention a battery that lasts half as long (but I could replace it!!!). Same goes for the Treo, and it's closer in price to the iPhone, but it's Cingular exclusive just like iPhone.

Take your "Expandable Storage" for example. How much memory does your phone have natively? 60 MB? 64MB? I can't store ANYTHING on 60 MB. So now I need to buy a sim. How much is it going to cost to bump that up to 4 or 8 GIG? I think an 4 GIG sim is something like $100?

Removable battery? Honestly, I've had three phones in the last 5 years. I've never NEEDED to REPLACE a battery. Even if I did, they're not FREE. It's FUN to pull the battery out and toss it around though. I guess that's the only reason I've ever taken it off the phone.

Video recording? Are you serious? It's not a camcorder. Hell even my 2 year old digital camera can't do decent video recording... why *should* my phone?

MMS is interesting, but I'd rather have FULL email than squirting pictures. I've heard of support from 3rd parties though for those that really want MMS. I don't think I'd personally use this feature. To each his own.

I can't see that purchasing directly from the phone has any advantage whatsoever... maybe I'm missing something. I buy off iTunes and I have my collection in one place (or at least try to). Sometimes I purchase from multiple machines... having it strewn across multiple devices already makes it hard to keep track of. I'd hate to lose music I paid good money for.

Games will come... guaranteed. Flash support will be along shortly as well. Software upgrades will certainly bring NEW features.

Faster network... wifi in the home and in the office will certainly be nice.

Apple certainly is lacking a few features. Others will have those features BUT YOU'LL FIND THEM LACKING.

Apple is great at identifying what the CORE public wants and delivering. There will always be people that want more out of ANY device. Apple is delivering product that MOST people want. And they do it better than most.

When's the last time you've heard of people camping out for a PHONE? It's not hype.... it's EXCITEMENT.

The phone isn't for everyone. Nobody is forcing you to buy one. If you like it, get one. If you don't, get something else. Either way vote with your dollar.

Don't be suprised to see lots of others voting with their dollar and picking up iPhones.

Just FTR. One phone...Nokia N95...2 phones, Nokia E90...one OLD phone...Nokia E61...and thats without even breakign out of nokia...most modern pda/smart phones can perform all of those functions..OR they can be added with simple 3rd party apps....

edited ...minus the itune sstore access of course...everywhere else, many phones meet and exceed...

Edited 2007-06-27 04:56

I can't see that purchasing directly from the phone has any advantage whatsoever

I see that as a huge advantage and quite an untapped market and I'm actually quite shocked that Apple didn't include it. When I'm listening to music I often make associations to other music and think oh I'd like to listen to that. If i could download it directly via my mp3 player I know I probably would on many occasions.

Or when you're sitting around in a pub talking music with your friends and someone mentions a song it would be really cool to be able to listen to it a few minutes later.

After a few beers I can happily see many songs being downloaded in an evening that might never get downloaded if I'm sitting sober and alone in front of my computer. Lots of lost revenue for apple.

As for keeping tracks on multiple machines, it probably wouldn't be too hard to set up something where you tie your iPhone to a computer and any song you download to your phone can be re-downloaded for free to that computer.

You've just been ripped off, and then dugg
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/what-the-iphone-doesnt-have-272571...

Quality blogging-I mean plagiarism, from Gizmodo.

The bit is that, how many non-geeks would be willing to pony up